As the inaugural executive director, Lee J. Strang is responsible for establishing the center, overseeing the hiring and appointment of its faculty, developing curriculum, and delivering student and academic programming. He also holds a faculty appointment in the Moritz College of Law at Ohio State.

Professor Strang is a nationally recognized legal scholar who has published dozens of articles in leading journals in constitutional law and interpretation, property law, and religion and the First Amendment. He co-edits the textbook Federal Constitutional Law, and his most recent book, Originalism’s Promise: A Natural Law Account of the American Constitution, is the first book-length, natural law justification for originalism.

Before joining Ohio State, Professor Strang was the inaugural director of the University of Toledo’s Institute of American Constitutional Thought & Leadership. In 2016, he was appointed to the Ohio Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and reappointed as chair in 2023.

Prior to teaching, Professor Strang served as a judicial clerk for Judge Alice M. Batchelder of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was also an associate for Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago, where he practiced in general and appellate litigation. A graduate of the University of Iowa, he was articles editor of the Iowa Law Review and Order of the Coif. Professor Strang holds an LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School.